Donziger, Ecuadorians File Motion to Stay Judge's Decision

NEW YORK, Mar. 18
/CSRwire/ - Saying the decision in Chevron’s RICO case is
without legal precedent, New York Attorney Steven Donziger
and two Ecuadorian villagers today filed papers with Judge
Lewis A. Kaplan seeking to stay his decision granting an
injunction and other remedies to Chevron after it was hit
with a $9.5 billion judgment in Ecuador for deliberately
dumping toxic waste into the rainforest.

The papers, filed
by Donziger’s lead appellate attorney Deepak Gupta, argue
that Judge Kaplan’s decision is highly likely to be thrown
out on appeal and will cause “irreparable harm” if not
stayed pending the appeals process, which can sometimes take
two years or more.

The papers, which can be read here, argue that Judge
Kaplan’s RICO decision “seeks to preemptively undermine
the judicial decree of a foreign sovereign nation and, in so
doing, to let Chevron Corporation off the hook for decades
of deliberate pollution in the Amazon rainforest.” The
brief adds: “Along the way, it sidesteps jurisdictional
hurdles, runs afoul of fundamental norms of international
comity, and contravenes multiple decisions of the Second
Circuit arising out of this same long-running
controversy.”

“It is unlikely to survive appeal. And
there is no question,” the papers argue, “that it will
cause irreparable harm to the defendants and others if it is
allowed to go into effect before the Second Circuit has had
an opportunity to review it.”

The filing for a stay is
the first step to kicking off what Gupta hopes will be a
searching appellate review process. “It is now time for
the appellate court to weigh in on these critical legal
issues, which affect the well-being of thousands of
rainforest villagers suffering from the effects of
Chevron’s pollution in the Amazon,” said Gupta.

“The
more our legal team analyzes this 500-page decision, it
becomes increasingly clear that it will not stand up on
appeal,” said Karen Hinton, a spokesperson for
Donziger.

Donziger has argued that Judge Kaplan lacked
jurisdiction over him once Chevron dropped all money damages
claims on the eve of trial, given that an injunction (as
opposed to money) would not remedy an actual injury caused
to Chevron; that Judge Kaplan’s decision violates previous
orders from a federal appellate court barring him from
ruling on the validity of the Ecuadorian judgment; that the
decision violates international comity, in that it deems
Ecuador’s entire judicial system unworthy of international
respect; and that Donziger himself faces “irreparable
harm” by being forced to turn over to Chevron shares in a
company that was set up to administer recovery funds,
thereby depriving him of his ability to earn a
living.

Gupta suggested to Judge Kaplan that if he plans
to deny the request for a stay, that he do so “promptly”
so that a three-judge panel from the Second Circuit Court of
Appeals (which oversees Kaplan’s court) can take up the
issue. The papers also ask Judge Kaplan to issue a
“temporary administrative stay of the judgment” pending
resolution by the Court of Appeals.

Judge Kaplan already
has been reversed once in the case when he tried
to issue an unprecedented injunction blocking the
Ecuadorians from enforcing their judgment anywhere in the
world. The latest motion argues that Judge Kaplan’s more
recent injunction in practice does the same thing, even
though it uses different language.

Donziger repeatedly has
said he did not receive a fair trial in Judge Kaplan’s
courtroom; his former counsel, the renowned trial lawyer
John Keker, accused Judge Kaplan of letting the case “degenerate into a Dickensian
farce”. For background on Judge Kaplan’s bias as
explained in various legal petitions, see here, here, and here.

Today’s stay motion represents
the first appearance in the case from John Campbell and
Justin Marceau, two law professors at the University of
Denver who are teaching a special course built around
Donziger’s appeal. Nine students in the class are carrying
out research assignments for the legal team.

Donziger said
the filing of the papers is “an important first step” in
having Judge Kaplan’s decision reviewed by new
judges.

“It is our belief that Judge Kaplan’s decision
is wrong on the law, wrong on the facts, and resulted from a
skewed legal proceeding that violated the due process rights
of the defendants,” said
Donziger.

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